Why Men Lie... a Lot

Millions of women, one question: Why do men lie, and why so much?

Men lie, of course, because we want to conceal clandestine activities or because we don’t want to hurt your feelings, but we also issue “control lies.”

Your man comes home a couple hours after work. You ask him where he’s been. He says he was browsing around Wal-Mart but he was really at Buffalo Wild Wings-- happy hour with the work buddies. You might catch him in the lie (they don’t serve cocktails at WallyWorld) but it only costs him a lecture; also, you can verify with his co-workers or even the restaurant that he was on his best behavior.

But let’s say you don’t catch him. He just got away with another control lie. When they strap you into a lie detector they first issue a series of irrelevant control questions-- Is your name _____? Do you live at _____? Is your gender _____?-- to test the integrity of the apparatus before moving on to where you were on the night of who-gives-a-shit. Men also do this as a test of both their ability to speak falsely and your supposed women’s intuition. The more you believe his control lies, the more likely you are to believe his genuine lies.

And that’s the double truth, Ruth.